What Skoliar said. It also applies to Dance of Many (which doubles as 2cc General removal; screw Zur), Oblivion Ring, and--not in this list--Journey to Nowhere and Parallax Wave. (I personally find those two cards to be rather limited for a combo. If I manage to bust out a combo, I want to win the game.)
The easiest way to win doesn't even require you to play Hanna. With the absurd amount of mana ramp in this deck, you can easily power into Enduring Ideal by turn four or five.
Use Mystical Tutor (with Merchant Scroll) or Long-Term Planning to search for it directly, or dig it out.
I recommend searching for Decree of Silence first, followed by Enchanted Evening, and Opalescence. If you drew Opalescence and you cannot stick it back into your library with Mistveil Plains, use Luminarch Ascension instead.
If your opponent has a lot of permission, try to find your Boseiju.
Plan B:
Claws of Gix has many great interactions with the deck, but this combination is by far the most dangerous. By abusing the stack, you can instantly exile five lands from the opponent's board. Most people don't come back from that.
The stack order should look like this:
TOP
Sacrifice Parallax Tide
Exile target land
Exile target land
Exile target land
Exile target land
Exile target land
BOTTOM
The sacrifice resolves first, putting Tide into the graveyard and bringing all lands exiled by it back into play (which should be zero). Then the five lands are exiled.
To fetch these components, use Long-Term Plans, Fabricate, Idyllic Tutor, Tolaria West, and Enlightened Tutor. It's an amazingly effective soft lock, totally renewable with Hanna.
The shenanigans get out of control if you also add a Parallax Wave and Opalescence. This three card combination (Tide, Wave, Opalescence) allows you to remove as many lands and creatures from the game as you want, as often as you want. (Parallax Wave can "refresh" itself by targeting itself.)
Plan C:
This is a backup plan that should only be used if you actually have the Tunnel Vision in your hand. It can be inconsistent, since the Replenish can be anywhere in the deck, but you usually can get a couple of enchantments into play with the combo. (More, if you happen to have Intuition to search out threats and deposit them in your graveyard. I tend to search for combo pieces and an Argivian Find.)
You can also Tunnel Vision your opponent after tucking something onto the bottom of their library.
Plan D:
This is a win condition that I have really come to appreciate. It comes down early, and if you use all of your tutors for removal (or Solitary Confinement) and permission (or Greater Auramancy), you can protect it.
Card Choices:
Hanna, Ship's Navigator - At first glance, Hanna pales in comparison to UWB Generals like Sharuum and Zur. She has a frail 1/2 frame, and her activated ability costs an awkward 1UW. So why play her? Because she comes down under permission cover and can easy seal a win by recurring threats. What she lacks in explosive power and killing ability, she makes up for in adding resilience and flexibility. At 7 mana, she can bring back Parallax Tide every turn. At 10 mana, she can bring back Decree of Silence of every turn. And with the mana production in this deck, expect these numbers to be realistically achievable. To address her weaknesses against removal-heavy decks, be sure to find Lightning Greaves. If they are using sacrifice effects, you're going to have to play more carefully with Hanna.
MANA
Snow-Covered Lands - Yeah, people might scratch their heads when they see my striped lands. The reason why is that mono and dual color red decks like to run Wake of Destruction. This is a no-drawback way to minimize the damage from such a card.
Sol Ring/Mana Crypt/Mana Vault - Ridiculous acceleration that doesn't force you to sacrifice your instant-play.
Coalition Relic/Worn Powerstone/Thran Dynamo - More mana stones.
CARD ADVANTAGE
Fact or Fiction/Impulse - These let you dig for combo pieces at instant speed.
Honden of Seeing Winds - Combos with Solitary Confinement to make you nigh unkillable.
Rhystic Study/Recurring Insight - These are the two blue card advantage spells that no EDH deck should be without.
Solemn Simulacrum - Ramp, card advantage neutral, and a chump blocker? Sounds good to me.
Standstill - Stalls for time. Though against Legacy players, they may just instinctively break it.
TUTOR
Long-Term Plans - Long-Term Plans is a great tutor for this deck. Like most black tutors, it lets you fetch without revealing your plans to your opponent.
Merchant Scroll - Great for finding that blue permission spell to win the game. Merchant Scroll into Long-Term Plans or Mystical Tutor if you need a Sorcery or something non-Blue; if you are holding Replenish, consider looking for Intuition or vice versa.
Mystical Tutor - Many a game has been won on the back of end of turn Mystical Tutor for Enduring Renewal or permission.
Academy Rector - Tutor an enchantment directly into play? Absurd! Combine it with Claws of Gix to pull out a Parallax Tide for the crippling blow
Muddle the Mixture/Tolaria West - Most of the removal and intermediate pieces in this deck are 2cc, and this really helps find those things. Tolaria West is yet another way to find Claws of Gix.
Trinket Mage - Searches for Claws of Gix and Voltaic Key.
REMOVAL
Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile/Condemn - These cards represent a significant shift in doctrine when I dedicated this deck to 1v1. I find that there are many fast threats that need to be handled. These cards, along with the mass removal and permission elements, are real life savers.
Hallowed Burial/Terminus/Supreme Verdict - Mass removal to help control aggro decks. Hallowed Burial and Terminus are especially important for handling Generals that are indestructible, hexproof/shroud, or have permission protecting them. Supreme Verdict instead of Wrath of God because I hate Zur.
Hinder/Spell Crumple - More tuck! Except these are permission spells.
Detention Sphere/Oblivion Ring - These are removal spells that hit Planeswalkers (very important, since this deck does not have many creatures) that also happen to be enchantments. With Claws of Gix, you can sacrifice these in response to the triggered ability to make this a permanent exile. (I chose to drop Cessation and Faith's Fetters because they are only effective against creatures typically; also, they don't stop persistent effects.)
Phantasmal Image/Phyrexian Metamorph - EDH heavyweights for 2 and 3 mana. They remove a General or copy a major threat or utility card.
Take Possession/Treachery - It's convenient to steal your opponents' stuff at times. I include Take Possession to have that Split Second steal (nothing quite like it says "screw you" to an Oblivion Stone).
You're going to need effects like Howling Mine and Horn of Greed, on top of mass removal. Fog effects are nice and all, but if they gang up on you, it's not a winning strategy. Rely on diplomacy and group hugging.
Bump. It's been awhile, so I decided to repost the deck in its most revised form. It's a lot more focused on the combo side; the prison elements have mostly been removed on account of them not being very fun and because they draw a lot of animosity from the field.
This has been relatively consistent. The problem right now though is that it's hard to answer all of the threats out there with a small removal suite. =\
Back to a more traditional form. My experiments with Vault Skirge failed, so I swapped Gatekeeper back in. It's hard to fight off KDW/Tempered Steel, Twin, and Valakut all at once, so I added Tumble Magnet. It has the best coverage when combined with Zenith. =\
The metagame is so frustrating right now. Between Tempered Steel, Valakut, and UB Control, it's hard to run removal other than Black Sun's Zenith or Dismember maindeck. =\
Also, I got wrecked by Tumble Magnet in the last TNM. T_T
I think the poster meant Piston Sledge has no place in the deck because you end up losing more than you gain.
If you are really that concerned with CA, then using Trusty Machete works too. Turns Skirge into a 3/2, Nighthawk into a 4/4.
I just find it hard to justify 4 Skirge and 4 Nighthawk with only 3-4 Lashwrithe in your deck. Skirges are terrible without some way to increase damage output.
They kill its EtB target, and then you have to sac something to equip it again.
If the deck was running some sort of graveyard recursion I'd go for it though.
EDIT: Ha ha! I just read the Piston Sledge again. Here I thought you had to sac a creature to equip it. Instead you have to sac an artifact. Which begs the question, what would I sac? Lashwrithe? Another Piston Sledge? Vault Skirge?
Usually Vault Skirge. The idea though is to go turn one Duress/Inquisition, turn two Skirge, and turn three Sledge, which auto-equips.
Machete also works, but it's one less power. I just hate the idea of Skirge herp derping for three turns.
Went 2-1-1 at FNM lost to a knight deck b/c of mana screw beat a W/U a pyro-ascension and drew vs the U/B cousin of super friends
Hey what about playing Druidic Satchel" target="blank">Druidic Satchel it seems like it could be the new sign in blood. I saw it perform pretty good when i faced the U/B deck.
I actually saw an amusing deck that had (virtually) no creatures in it. It was Artifact Control. It focused on using Druidic Satchel and a Proliferate engine to essentially stall and slowly kill the opponent. Satchel is pretty interesting in this setting, as it usually generates a land. If not, more life.
And will sit on the board if they kill the creature. Is losing 2 creatures and a turn worth +3/+1?
Two creatures? Just one. With hand disruption, it makes it hard for opponents to hang onto a Lightning Bolt for long (and Vault Skirge is immune to both GFTT and Doom Blade). And the same can be said about Vampire Bite, so I'm not sure what your point is. At least with Sledge/Machete, you can get more than one hit with +3/+2 power in and, if you have a spare Skirge, you can turn the Skirge into another Sledge; Sledge operates like an Aura. Machete is more traditional, but also a 3 mana same-turn equip for Skirge.
Another neat trick: You can keep a Germ token alive using a Sledge/Machete before equipping it elsewhere.
I could understand dropping a Swamp for the 4th Lashwrithe. I disagree on needing more equipment. I added Vampire's Bite for that reason. You can make some good trades with it as well as recoup life points. I'd rather have a one-shot combat trick than try to work around casting and equipping. Using up entire early game turns to make a small dork bigger doesn't help much.
Unless you have a 5 turn clock, you can afford to make time.
Is there a good reason why no one is running Zombie Infestation? Seems like it would work great with Bloodghast and for late game dead draws.
I can imagine a deck that runs Infestation, Pharaoh, Bloodghast, and Rise From the Grave. But we need more. Specifically, more removal and card advantage that can operate from the graveyard. Also, a replacement for Rise. I hope that Innistrad, which does feature Flashback, will provide us this.
That, and this is the mono black CONTROL thread. The last few decklists have been undoubtebly aggro. Just sayin....
This thread has been here since Zendikar. The concept constantly evolves. It has gone from aggro-control to pure control and now, to midrange aggro. Nobody right now considers this deck viable as pure control. With our removal suite in jeopardy, speed is of the essence.
What Skoliar said. It also applies to Dance of Many (which doubles as 2cc General removal; screw Zur), Oblivion Ring, and--not in this list--Journey to Nowhere and Parallax Wave. (I personally find those two cards to be rather limited for a combo. If I manage to bust out a combo, I want to win the game.)
1x Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Land (37)
1x Adarkar Wastes
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1x Celestial Colonnade
1x Command Tower
1x Flagstones of Trokair
1x Flooded Strand
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Hallowed Fountain
5x Island
1x Kor Haven
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Mistveil Plains
1x Mystic Gate
1x Nimbus Maze
4x Plains
1x Polluted Delta
1x Seachrome Coast
1x Sejiri Refuge
5x Snow-Covered Islands
4x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Tolaria West
1x Tundra
1x Windswept Heath
Artifact (12)
1x Claws of Gix
1x Coalition Relic
1x Grim Monolith
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Meekstone
1x Scroll Rack
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Worn Powerstone
1x Academy Rector
1x Phantasmal Image
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Trinket Mage
Enchantment (21)
1x Aura of Silence
1x Copy Enchantment
1x Decree of Silence
1x Detention Sphere
1x Enchanted Evening
1x Greater Auramancy
1x Honden of Seeing Winds
1x Land Tax
1x Leyline of Anticipation
1x Luminarch Ascension
1x Mystic Remora
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Opalescence
1x Parallax Tide
1x Parallax Wave
1x Rhystic Study
1x Seal of Cleansing
1x Solitary Confinement
1x Standstill
1x Take Possession
1x Treachery
Instant (15)
1x Argivian Find
1x Condemn
1x Counterspell
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Force of Will
1x Hinder
1x Impulse
1x Long-Term Plans
1x Muddle the Mixture
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Path to Exile
1x Return to Dust
1x Spell Crumple
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Enduring Ideal
1x Fabricate
1x Hallowed Burial
1x Idyllic Tutor
1x Merchant Scroll
1x Recurring Insight
1x Replenish
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Terminus
1x Tunnel Vision
Plan A:
The easiest way to win doesn't even require you to play Hanna. With the absurd amount of mana ramp in this deck, you can easily power into Enduring Ideal by turn four or five.
Use Mystical Tutor (with Merchant Scroll) or Long-Term Planning to search for it directly, or dig it out.
I recommend searching for Decree of Silence first, followed by Enchanted Evening, and Opalescence. If you drew Opalescence and you cannot stick it back into your library with Mistveil Plains, use Luminarch Ascension instead.
If your opponent has a lot of permission, try to find your Boseiju.
Plan B:
Claws of Gix has many great interactions with the deck, but this combination is by far the most dangerous. By abusing the stack, you can instantly exile five lands from the opponent's board. Most people don't come back from that.
The stack order should look like this:
TOP
Sacrifice Parallax Tide
Exile target land
Exile target land
Exile target land
Exile target land
Exile target land
BOTTOM
The sacrifice resolves first, putting Tide into the graveyard and bringing all lands exiled by it back into play (which should be zero). Then the five lands are exiled.
To fetch these components, use Long-Term Plans, Fabricate, Idyllic Tutor, Tolaria West, and Enlightened Tutor. It's an amazingly effective soft lock, totally renewable with Hanna.
The shenanigans get out of control if you also add a Parallax Wave and Opalescence. This three card combination (Tide, Wave, Opalescence) allows you to remove as many lands and creatures from the game as you want, as often as you want. (Parallax Wave can "refresh" itself by targeting itself.)
Plan C:
This is a backup plan that should only be used if you actually have the Tunnel Vision in your hand. It can be inconsistent, since the Replenish can be anywhere in the deck, but you usually can get a couple of enchantments into play with the combo. (More, if you happen to have Intuition to search out threats and deposit them in your graveyard. I tend to search for combo pieces and an Argivian Find.)
You can also Tunnel Vision your opponent after tucking something onto the bottom of their library.
Plan D:
This is a win condition that I have really come to appreciate. It comes down early, and if you use all of your tutors for removal (or Solitary Confinement) and permission (or Greater Auramancy), you can protect it.
Card Choices:
Hanna, Ship's Navigator - At first glance, Hanna pales in comparison to UWB Generals like Sharuum and Zur. She has a frail 1/2 frame, and her activated ability costs an awkward 1UW. So why play her? Because she comes down under permission cover and can easy seal a win by recurring threats. What she lacks in explosive power and killing ability, she makes up for in adding resilience and flexibility. At 7 mana, she can bring back Parallax Tide every turn. At 10 mana, she can bring back Decree of Silence of every turn. And with the mana production in this deck, expect these numbers to be realistically achievable. To address her weaknesses against removal-heavy decks, be sure to find Lightning Greaves. If they are using sacrifice effects, you're going to have to play more carefully with Hanna.
MANA
Snow-Covered Lands - Yeah, people might scratch their heads when they see my striped lands. The reason why is that mono and dual color red decks like to run Wake of Destruction. This is a no-drawback way to minimize the damage from such a card.
Sol Ring/Mana Crypt/Mana Vault - Ridiculous acceleration that doesn't force you to sacrifice your instant-play.
Coalition Relic/Worn Powerstone/Thran Dynamo - More mana stones.
CARD ADVANTAGE
Fact or Fiction/Impulse - These let you dig for combo pieces at instant speed.
Honden of Seeing Winds - Combos with Solitary Confinement to make you nigh unkillable.
Rhystic Study/Recurring Insight - These are the two blue card advantage spells that no EDH deck should be without.
Solemn Simulacrum - Ramp, card advantage neutral, and a chump blocker? Sounds good to me.
Standstill - Stalls for time. Though against Legacy players, they may just instinctively break it.
TUTOR
Long-Term Plans - Long-Term Plans is a great tutor for this deck. Like most black tutors, it lets you fetch without revealing your plans to your opponent.
Merchant Scroll - Great for finding that blue permission spell to win the game. Merchant Scroll into Long-Term Plans or Mystical Tutor if you need a Sorcery or something non-Blue; if you are holding Replenish, consider looking for Intuition or vice versa.
Mystical Tutor - Many a game has been won on the back of end of turn Mystical Tutor for Enduring Renewal or permission.
Academy Rector - Tutor an enchantment directly into play? Absurd! Combine it with Claws of Gix to pull out a Parallax Tide for the crippling blow
Muddle the Mixture/Tolaria West - Most of the removal and intermediate pieces in this deck are 2cc, and this really helps find those things. Tolaria West is yet another way to find Claws of Gix.
Trinket Mage - Searches for Claws of Gix and Voltaic Key.
REMOVAL
Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile/Condemn - These cards represent a significant shift in doctrine when I dedicated this deck to 1v1. I find that there are many fast threats that need to be handled. These cards, along with the mass removal and permission elements, are real life savers.
Hallowed Burial/Terminus/Supreme Verdict - Mass removal to help control aggro decks. Hallowed Burial and Terminus are especially important for handling Generals that are indestructible, hexproof/shroud, or have permission protecting them. Supreme Verdict instead of Wrath of God because I hate Zur.
Hinder/Spell Crumple - More tuck! Except these are permission spells.
Detention Sphere/Oblivion Ring - These are removal spells that hit Planeswalkers (very important, since this deck does not have many creatures) that also happen to be enchantments. With Claws of Gix, you can sacrifice these in response to the triggered ability to make this a permanent exile. (I chose to drop Cessation and Faith's Fetters because they are only effective against creatures typically; also, they don't stop persistent effects.)
Phantasmal Image/Phyrexian Metamorph - EDH heavyweights for 2 and 3 mana. They remove a General or copy a major threat or utility card.
Take Possession/Treachery - It's convenient to steal your opponents' stuff at times. I include Take Possession to have that Split Second steal (nothing quite like it says "screw you" to an Oblivion Stone).
24 Swamp
Creatures - 17
3 Nantuko Shade
3 Liliana's Specter
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
3 Grave Titan
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Duress
3 Sign in Blood
3 Black Sun's Zenith
Artifacts - 7
4 Lashwrithe
3 Tumble Magnet
3 Disfigure
3 Hex Parasite
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Go For the Throat
3 Memoricide
This has been relatively consistent. The problem right now though is that it's hard to answer all of the threats out there with a small removal suite. =\
24 Swamp
Creatures - 17
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Nantuko Shade
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
3 Grave Titan
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Duress
3 Sign in Blood
3 Black Sun's Zenith
Artifacts - 7
4 Lashwrithe
3 Tumble Magnet
3 Disfigure
3 Hex Parasite
3 Go For the Throat
3 Memoricide
3 Skinrender
Back to a more traditional form. My experiments with Vault Skirge failed, so I swapped Gatekeeper back in. It's hard to fight off KDW/Tempered Steel, Twin, and Valakut all at once, so I added Tumble Magnet. It has the best coverage when combined with Zenith. =\
Also, I got wrecked by Tumble Magnet in the last TNM. T_T
If you are really that concerned with CA, then using Trusty Machete works too. Turns Skirge into a 3/2, Nighthawk into a 4/4.
I just find it hard to justify 4 Skirge and 4 Nighthawk with only 3-4 Lashwrithe in your deck. Skirges are terrible without some way to increase damage output.
Usually Vault Skirge. The idea though is to go turn one Duress/Inquisition, turn two Skirge, and turn three Sledge, which auto-equips.
Machete also works, but it's one less power. I just hate the idea of Skirge herp derping for three turns.
I actually saw an amusing deck that had (virtually) no creatures in it. It was Artifact Control. It focused on using Druidic Satchel and a Proliferate engine to essentially stall and slowly kill the opponent. Satchel is pretty interesting in this setting, as it usually generates a land. If not, more life.
Two creatures? Just one. With hand disruption, it makes it hard for opponents to hang onto a Lightning Bolt for long (and Vault Skirge is immune to both GFTT and Doom Blade). And the same can be said about Vampire Bite, so I'm not sure what your point is. At least with Sledge/Machete, you can get more than one hit with +3/+2 power in and, if you have a spare Skirge, you can turn the Skirge into another Sledge; Sledge operates like an Aura. Machete is more traditional, but also a 3 mana same-turn equip for Skirge.
Another neat trick: You can keep a Germ token alive using a Sledge/Machete before equipping it elsewhere.
Unless you have a 5 turn clock, you can afford to make time.
Also, Piston Sledge adds +3/+1 instantly.
I can imagine a deck that runs Infestation, Pharaoh, Bloodghast, and Rise From the Grave. But we need more. Specifically, more removal and card advantage that can operate from the graveyard. Also, a replacement for Rise. I hope that Innistrad, which does feature Flashback, will provide us this.
This thread has been here since Zendikar. The concept constantly evolves. It has gone from aggro-control to pure control and now, to midrange aggro. Nobody right now considers this deck viable as pure control. With our removal suite in jeopardy, speed is of the essence.
That deck wants 4 Lashwrithe and maybe even some Sword of War and Peace, Trusty Machete, or Piston Sledge. Your creatures are going to suck without equipment.
Typo. Hahaha. But yeah, you get the idea.
Too expensive. Maybe if it was 5cc for a 4/4 Flying with that effect...